Combined 1-MW Solar Electric and Chemical Propulsion for Crewed Mars Missions
Abstract
The current Moon to Mars Architecture defines functional capabilities that are essential to achieving NASA’s specific exploration goals and objectives1. The transportation system goals and objectives or functional capabilities do not prescribe a solution, leaving an open trade space to be explored. NASA is working to identify power and propulsion technologies that enable feasible transportation options for crewed missions to Mars. During NASA’s Strategic Analysis Cycle 2021 (SAC21), nuclear enabled spacecraft concepts were analyzed for moderate duration 850-day Earth-Mars roundtrip missions2. During SAC22, the transportation trade space was expanded to understand the feasibility of using different propulsion systems for crewed Mars missions using a moderate duration reference mission as a comparison point. This paper presents the mission analysis performed for a conceptual MW-class hybrid Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP)-chemical propulsion system (SEP-Chem) spacecraft optimized for an 850-day crewed Mars mission for the 2039 opportunity.
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Augmented Hohmann Transfer for Spacecraft with Continuous-Thrust Propulsion System
Quarta, A. A. (2025) · Aerospace · doi:10.3390/aerospace12040307 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Optimizing Propellant Distribution for Interorbital Transfers
de Curtò, J., & de Zarzà, I. (2024) · Mathematics · doi:10.3390/math12060900 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Cojocea, A. V., Gall, M., VRABIE, G. I., et al. (2024) · Technologies · doi:10.3390/technologies12120252
- Authors
- Burke, L. M., Oleson, S. R., Zoloty, Z. C., Smith, D., & Havens, M.
- Affiliations
- Glenn Research Center (US)
- HX5, LLC
- Purdue University System (US)
- ORCID
- Smith, David
- Venue
- ASCEND 2023
- Published
- 2023-10-17
- OpenAlex
- W4387741510
- Semantic Scholar
- db5ec056adaf02d8457365c09f380e6933061d83
- Cited by
- 3
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2
- FWCI
- 1.68
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › Spacecraft Design and Technology
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › Spacecraft Dynamics and Control
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Planetary Science and Exploration
- Keywords
- solar electric propulsion, chemical propulsion, hybrid propulsion system, human Mars missions, mission analysis
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